Part II: Victims of Corruption

[DBIL Administrator]

The Situation

Date: Year 19 of Deragth's Reign
Main Characters: Brokel, Nirvei, Calico

Primary Goal(s): Escape the Eastern Capital
Secondary Goal(s): Liberate the Old Herbalist

Scenario: Safe for the moment, Brokel, Nirvei and Calico escape the clutches of Captain Stripe, into what seems like a safe haven. However, as if in response, Stripe has demanded the capture of the escaped prisoners, dead or alive, the mobs and citizens of the Eastern Capital all eager to gain the one million zeni prize.

Scurrying through every house, every building within the area, the citizens are inevitably going to find the location of the prisoners... Escaping the city is their only option, but with Calico down, exactly how will they escape?

Character Actions

Captain Stripe: As Stripe's energy backed fist seemed like it was about to make contact with Brokel's face, the two prisoners dematerialized. The captain could have sworn that he saw the cat's colors faintly before they disappeared.

His fist breaking down the wall as it made contact, Stripe gave yet another cry of rage as his figure erupted in red visible energy.

The next thing visible was Stripe leaping up above the arena grandstands, before leaving, giving a speech in his loudest voice possible, perhaps so loud that it would surround the entire city for a few seconds...

"People of East City! Bring me the furry cat and the prisoners, dead or alive! The prize? One million zeni! Now go!"

As expected, the people scattered across the city, seeming like little ants from the top of the grandstand as they scurried to their houses, checking the entire city, in a hope to find the prisoners... After all... Money made the world go around these days... Of course, there would be lots of blood...

Deragth would have Stripe's head if he found out that a Saiyan had escaped from his clutches...

[Calico Nerdani]

(OOC: with Calico out of it right now, I'm going to take the role(s) of the member(s) of Calico's team, it that's alright with ya'll)

Sally McSally regained her composure and picked up her mug, holding it out defensively.

"Don't move! I've got a cup and I'm n-not afraid to u-use it!" she squeaked. Then she saw a familiar face. "Calico! But you're supposed to be at the East Branch! You can't teleport that......." The sound of purring reached her ears. She realized then that he had teleported from that far away, and that he was out cold. Letting out a quick, forceful sigh, she helped the two strangers up.

"I'm Sally McSally, a fellow Resistance Agent and one of Calico's team." She smiled. "I'm great with tech." She appraised the male, and had to remember to breahte. "Anyway, let's see what Calico caused this time."

Sally turned around, cursing in her mind as her cheeks flushed. That black-haired man was so cute! She walked briskly over to the television and turned it on.

"-ple of East City!" boomed Stripe's angry voice through the speaker. "Bring me the furry cat and the prisoners, dead or alive!"The prize? One million Zeni!"

Sally's jaw dropped and she spun around to the two strangers.

"You're hot!" she yelled, not thinking at all about how it would sound until after it came out. She blushed an even deeper red.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

It had been a long day for Nirvei Vaspoir. So far she had been ambushed by a group of Hellspawn, taken to jail, met the first people she had encountered that didn’t try to kill her on site, almost executed for something she had no control over, and finally transported to what looked like some kind of secret hideout. ‘This is too much. What else is going to happen to me today?!’ she wondered while rubbing the side of her head.

Nirvei looked up at the woman who helped her and Brokel off the floor. “Erm, nice to meet you Sally. The name’s Nirvei, Nirvei Vaspoir,” she introduced herself. The girl dusted off her white tunic and black shorts. Sally’s reaction to Brokel made her chuckle. “Heh, looks like you made a new friend,” she whispered to him.

Her eyes traveled from Brokel to the television screen that flickered on. She raised an eyebrow as she stared at it. It looked like whatever channel it was flipped to was in the middle of some kind of news bulletin. The announcer was none other than Captain Stripe. “I guess this guy’s going to pull out all the stops to get at us. Then again, Calico embarrassed him pretty badly in front of all those people with his little disappearing act,” Nirvei commented. She wasn’t expecting what came out of Sally’s mouth next though. Awkward...

[Brokel]

"You're Hot!" Sally exclaimed.

Despite knowing she meant differently, despite the very dangerous situation, despite having almost been decapitated by Stripe's fist, despite having the crap beat out of him and probably seeing the only person that he loved on the planet for the last time and not actually seeing them, despite being through all that crap in the past few days, Brokel laughed.

He laughed so hard that he fell down onto his knees, and tears began sprouting out of his eyes. The shaking laughter dehabilitated him into curling up on the ground and holding his sides together. He started getting light headed from laughing so hard.

After the laughter subsided enough, Brokel wiped his eyes and sat up.

"Must be the stress," Brokel sighed, "The stress finally got to me." He rubbed his forehead, and looked up at Sally.

"So what now?" He asked, looking into her eyes. "We're wanted criminals, with a whopping bounty on our heads, and the most capable of us is functionally --and indefinitely, as far as we know-- incapacitated. Where do we run? The only place I can think of going would be my hideout in the desert, but we have zero chance of getting there undetected carrying a wanted comatose cat around." He remembered that he hadn't introduced himself.

"I'm Brokel, by the way. Nice to meet you Sally. I'd really appreciate it if you could contact your superiors and get the heck out of here before you're dragged into our mess." Brokel smiled a bit sadly. "Such a pretty girl shouldn't be plagued by the perils of three wanted fugitives."

[Calico Nerdani]

Taken aback by Brokel's breakdown and dazed by his eyes, it took Sally a second to register what he said. She hmphed and stuck her chin out defiantly with her arms crossed.

"I am not just a girl, thank you very much!" she said with a cross tone. How dare he! Girl!

He hadn't meant it as an insult, but she was embarrased, and when she was embarrassed she got defensive. She sighed and calmed down.

"I'll radio in to my superiors," she conceded, "but I'm not leaving. I'm guiding you to The Desert through the secret tunnels." She smiled and took on a teasing tone.

"You're not goin to get rid of this prettygirl that easily," she said, winking. "'Sides, I know those tunnels like the back of my hand!" At that, she dashed off to a different room. A little while and a bunch of static later, she dashed back out.

"Grab Calico please," Sally said with a sheepish look. She made a face.

"I'm allergic to cats."

Once Calico was secured, Sally led them down to the service tunnels, and then down towards where an inconspicuous secret hatch was that led to the Resistance tunnels.

But peculiar noises stopped the group in their tracks.

[DBIL Administrator]

The Situation

Date: Year 19 of Deragth's Reign
Main Characters: Brokel, Nirvei, Calico, Sally
Primary Goal(s): Escape the Eastern Capital
Secondary Goal(s): Liberate the Old Herbalist

Scenario: A large group of joined up citizens have finally discovered the resistance hideout, made known by a wide open door... And lots of things that suggest its' resistance allegiance.

Finding no sign of the fugitives within the abandoned building, many of the citizens have walked away, grumbling at their own misfortune. However, as the old saying goes; "Good things come to those who wait," a passageway leading to a series of tunnels are uncovered by a small child after what seemed like hours of searching for clues.

The passageways now flooded by crazy citizens armed with farm tools, hardware and everyday home-made weapons, it won't be hard to know if they are approaching.

Now on the fugitive's tails, the citizens hasten to cover more ground, having already contacted the soldiers, who move above, following from above using a radar on which the locations of the fugitives are pinpointed.

Character Actions

N/A

[Nirvei/Lapis]

Not sure what to say about Brokel’s outburst, Nirvei hoisted the sleeping cat onto her back before following the others into passage. He was a lot heavier than he looked, but then again Nirvei was a lot stronger than she looked.

She made sure to stay close. The dark winding tunnel looked easy to get lost in, and that was the last thing she needed right now. Everything was going smoothly until the group came to a halt all at the same time. Nirvei couldn’t hear anything but the purring of the cat on her back at first. Soon something else could be heard though. Rats? Naw, it was too loud to be rats. Then it dawned on her. “We might want to hurry up. I think they’re catching up to us,” the girl blurted out nervously.

[Calico Nerdani]

Sally's mind went back to what had happened about two and a half hours ago, with that old crazy guy hobbling up to them on a cane.

"The prize!" was all he said. "The prize!" Before Sally could have reacted Brokel knocked the poor old man out. They had gone down the hidden hatch with no witnesses. She understood why he did it. What threw her off was how fast he had moved. If his mind was as fast as he was, then he was probably one smart cookie!

Mmm, cookies.......

Sally shook her head and pointed ahead.

"We turn this way," she said. "Then we follow it 'till the tunnel changes color, and take a left."

[Brokel]

Brokel kept to himself the whole time, running over what had happened in the past days. He thought it was ironic, how they didn't take any of his possessions. In fact, they hadn't touched his stuff. He figured that was due to the anthro now resting n his shoulders. Brokel had taken him from Nirvei a while ago out of courtesy.

The dead weight on his shoulders didn't bother him at all. It was just like carrying that heavy herbalist pack around. Except it was a cat. All of a sudden, Calico's claws extended and dug into the Hellspawn armor Brokel still wore. Thank goodness for the armor! He would have been bleeding right now.

Then something dawned on Brokel.

What if the armor had tracking devices built into it??

"Uhh, hey," Brokel said with unease, "What if they're tracking us right now??"

[DBIL Administrator]

The Situation

Date: Year 19 of Deragth's Reign
Main Characters: Brokel, Nirvei, Calico

Primary Goal(s): Escape the Eastern Capital
Secondary Goal(s): Liberate the Old Herbalist

Scenario: The sound of footsteps can be very clearly heard by now from where Brokel and co. are at, as well as the yelling and complaints of a lack of breathing space. This is what you get when you enter an extremely narrow tunnel along with hundreds of other people.

Up above, a unit of Hellspawn soldiers, led by one of Captain Stripe's minors, continued to follow the radar signals indeed, coming from a tracking device on Brokel's Hellspawn armor. Coming to the exit of the Eastern Capital, the unit continued on, in hopes of gaining the reward money for themselves.

Finally, down below, the running mob can be faintly seen, as they pant and pant for breath, spurred on only by the thought of gaining the ridiculous amount of prize money.

At this point, a light at the end of the tunnel is still not visible, perhaps a change of direction would be the best way to go at this point... Or perhaps the fugitives would stand and fight... The decision would be theirs...

Character Actions

[Calico Nerdani]

Sally squeaked. Not a scream, not a gasp, not a yell. A squeak.

"WHY didn't I check before!??" She yelled at the ceiling. "Darn it!" She ran over to Brokel and put her hands on his chest. She noticed a quick look of surprise on Brokel before he hid it, and brought her palm to her forehead with a loud smacking sound. "It's rigged!"

She looked around desperately, and saw an old lab. Her eyes lit up and she squealed in delight.

"Robot parts!" she exclaimed. "I could make a decoy robot!" It wouldn't take long with the right parts! She'd have those Hellspawn barking up the wrong tree in no time!

She rubbed her hands together and dashed into the old decrepit science lab. That probably had rats in it.

Not to mention rat poo.

[Nirvei/Lapis]

“Rigged? So they’ve been tracking us this whole time?! No wonder they’ve been gaining on us...” Nirvei sighed. This was just great. Maybe there was no way to avoid a fight after all. She rushed to catch up with the others, cracking her knuckles in preparation for a possible fight.

Into the science lab they went. It was dark, and there was dust and cobwebs everywhere. This place had obviously been abandoned a long time ago. For how long though? What the group didn’t know was that the laboratory that they had stumbled upon wasn’t quite as abandoned as they thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Lapis Lazuli, awaken. Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” a deep voice sounded within the lab. It didn’t sound human. It sounded electronic. There was a loud humming noise in the background, and all of the lights were switched on.

A sleeping girl sat encased in a giant glass tube on the other side of the laboratory. She had long blue hair, wore a dress that almost looked like a maid would from a long time ago, and appeared to be no older than nine years old. The tube began to flash with a red light. The door to the tube slid open, and she began to stir. After being in sleep mode for over 400 years, android Lapis Lazuli had finally woken up.

“What’s going on? An intruder? Here?” Lapis wondered aloud. Was there truly someone here? The only other person the android had ever come into contact with before was Dr. Criel. She was a bit nervous, but she knew she had to do her job and protect this place. It was Papa’s treasure.

The child poked her head around the corner to get a better look at whoever had broken in. There were four of them. A man, two women, and... Was that a cat? ‘Oh dear. There really ARE people here? Do I really have to fight them? Maybe they’ll just go away,’ Lapis thought with uncertainty. She really didn’t want a fight to break out. Hopefully it wouldn’t resort to that.

“Please leave this place immediately! I-I-I do not want to have to use force!” the android announced while popping into the open. Her voice sounded a bit shaky. She had never had to do this before. “You have entered the laboratory of Dr. Criel. Theft will not be tolerated.”

[Calico Nerdani]

The blackness started lifting from Calco's mind. Swimming through a black, marshmallowy sludge wasn't fun at all! Calico was sure he'd be an old fat cat before he woke up, even though he was feeling much better, much closer to waking up and having a nice bowl of milk for his aching head. Maybe if someone could wake him up from the outside, pull this cat out of the dark bag.....

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Awww!" Sally said, overcome by the girl's cuteness. She couldn't take that warning seriously coming from such a little girl! She walked up to the girl and sank down to her height.
"What are you ding playing in these old, dark, abandoned tunnels?" she asked. "What would your parents say if they found out about you being down here? Well don't worry your head little missy! We just need any old robotc parts here in the lab. We don't even need the good parts! Just enough to make something than can carry that man's-" she pointed at Brokel "-armor far away." then she whispered "We're being followed by the bad men," and pointed up, referring to above them.

"They're tracking him through the armor. I need those parts to make a robot to carry the armor away from where we're going. Then they can follow the armor the wrong way, and the bad men won't find us. Do you think you can help us find some parts?" she asked, putting a hand on the girls head. Heck, maybe the girl knew where an old robot was that just needed to be activated.

[Brokel]

While Saly talked to the little girl, Brokel set Calico down and took off the Hellspawn armor. He flexed, because he was a little stiff from carrying a man-cat around. After cracking his knuckles and getting rid of that crick in his neck, he sat down next to the unconscious Calico.

When he had heard that the armor was rigged, his first thought was to destroy it. But Sally's idea of leading their pursuers on a false trail simply made more sense. Brokel still wanted to blow something up, take his anger out on someone related to causing this mess. Brokel sighed and batted Calico's tail away from his face. Calicos tail again took up his vision.

Too irritated to realize that Calico was obviously starting to wake up, Brokel batted the tail away again. He crossed his legs and rested his hands on his knees, and before he closed his eyes he saw Sally put her hand on the girl's head.

Calico's tail brushed across his face again.

"If you mess with a tiger's tail," Brokel said to himself, "Be prepared to deal with his teeth."

Impulsively, Brokel bit Calico's tail.

[DBIL Administrator]

Main Characters: Brokel, Nirvei, Calico

Primary Goal(s): Escape the Eastern Capital
Secondary Goal(s): Liberate the Old Herbalist

Scenario: The sound of complaining voices grew ever louder as the fugitive group halted... They were quite obviously gaining ground on the group. But louder than the coming sound was the sudden sound of a machine, similar to the sound that a computer makes when switched on.

All of a sudden, bright lights illuminated the lab room, numerous blueprints and what seemed like large experiment canisters.

Guard Robots... Activated... Trip Wire active...

From some now revealed pods emerged seven large and white robots, boasting the use of the now popular laser blasters.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"

A red light appeared in the center of what seemed like the head of all of the droids, their laser blasters now putting to use their laser sight, which all focused on the cat and Brokel.

Why were they the only ones targeted?

Character Actions

N/A